Will and Catrina Photography

DISTRACTIONS

2011-07-30T17:34:00.000-04:00

Do you find the title of this post a little distracting? Like someone is yelling at you? Well, it's supposed to. Just like this title, sometimes pictures are distracting because something pulls your eyes away from the main subject. Take the first picture below for example. What is distracting to you?

If you're like me, the twigs coming in from the left side almost ruin the photograph because they pull your eye away from our beautiful bride and her mother.

The same picture is shown below with the twigs removed. Do you like it better? We do. Much better. You will also notice the digital post-processing in the second image to enhance colors and make the Bride and her mother "pop" more in the photo. (See our older posts on digital post-processing.)

Of course, it is best to avoid distractions like this all together by not including them in the image, but that's not always possible. In this case, we were not going to prune any vegetation in the church's courtyard, and this was one of the few places in the area offering acceptable light, and we made the best of it. We think it was worth the extra time in Photoshop removing the twigs. Don't you?

As we've said before, every single image we make is inspected for color, contrast, composition, exposure, and many other things including distractions.

Pre-Event Equipment Checks

2011-07-07T10:02:00.001-04:00

OK, I know the title of this post doesn't sound very interesting, but our pre-event equipment check is a very important part of your wedding photography package. We go step-by-step through every menu of each camera and flash a few days before your event and check functionality of all flashes on each camera to ensure proper operation. Why do we do this? Because we want everything to run as smoothly as possible on your wedding day and not miss a single photo opportunity because of an incorrect setting or equipment malfunction.

If you've never been through the menus of a modern professional digital camera, realize that there are 50+ menu items, many with sub-menus. The professional flash units we use have another 10 menu items each. All said, we check 250+ menu settings in the equipment that will be used for your wedding.

If you're wondering how menu items can change between photo shoots, it can happen for a number of reasons: equipment resets to default settings (we use customized settings), we experiment with our cameras and flashes between events trying out different photography techniques and may inadvertently leave settings in experimental mode, we change settings during events as sunlight changes so our initial settings correspond to the time of day your event begins, and there are many other scenarios.

In addition to our equipment checks, I read the owner's manual for each piece of equipment at least twice per year. When you read a 150 page technical manual cover to cover, you either learn something new or remember something you had forgotten regardless of the number of times you've read it before. We take lots of pride in knowing our equipment inside and out.

Why am I telling you this? Our goal is for you to have a stress-free wedding day. Knowing that your photographers understand their equipment inside and out and have checked all settings, buttons, and dials before your wedding day will hopefully go a long way towards you having less stress.

Details, Details, Details

2011-06-22T17:03:00.000-04:00

One key piece of our wedding photography is capturing detail shots of the decorations, rings, bouquet, wedding gown, cake, venue, and other interesting images of the day's surroundings. Catrina is especially good at arranging items in a visually pleasing way to make unique images. At your wedding, we will be on the lookout for the little details that add up to help to make your wedding day special so they will never be forgotten.

Here are a handful of examples to give you a flavor of what we do. Click on a picture to see a larger version. Enjoy!

Digital Post-Processing, Part 2

2011-05-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

One of the first blog posts I made was about the importance of digital post-processing, in other words working on a digital image with Photoshop or other equivalent program to improve the overall image quality. I want to show you another example of why it's important for your wedding images to undergo digital post-processing and why you should be wary of any photographer that is willing to give you images straight out of the camera. (Hint: This is usually done by photographers who give you a disk of images within a few days of your wedding for about $500.)

One issue that wedding photographers regularly encounter is the green cast produced when a photo is taken outside in the shade under a tree. First, you should know that the best light for portraits is in the shade for a few reasons: no "hot spots" created by direct sunlight, no eye squinting, and even lighting. Plus, it gives photographers the option of using a flash to add a catchlight in the subject's eyes. Direct sunlight is usually the worst light for portraits.

The first image below was taken in a grassy area in the shade of a large tree in July. Can you see the green cast? This comes from sunlight reflected off of grass and leaves that picks up the green color. When you look at someone in this situation with your eyes, your brain adjusts for it, and you don't see the green cast. However, cameras do not adjust for it, and when you look at an image taken in this situation, the green cast is very apparent.

Before Digital Post-Processing

Here is the same image after digital post-processing with the green cast removed. What a difference!

After Digital Post-Processing

We think it's important for all of your images to be individually inspected and improved with digital post-processing. Some photographers take a short-cut and don't do it because of the time commitment, but we can't imagine giving our clients images without this important step.

Wedding Portraits at the University of Virginia

2011-04-16T20:46:00.002-04:00

Catrina and I had the opportunity to photograph a wedding in late March in Charlottesville, VA. Our couple came to the U.S. from Thailand a few years ago. This was exciting because their wedding ceremony was quite different from what we're used to, as one might expect, and they wore traditional dress for the wedding.

As you can see in the images below, we were able to take advantage of the University of Virginia's beautiful campus which is nestled below Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate in downtown Charlottesville at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains for some creative shots. Enjoy!

Catrina took the shot above using a column on the steps of UVA's School of Medicine.

Taken on the quad; flowering tree blurred in the background.

We found this row of arches outside an old dormitory. We added light using an umbrella to simulate evening light. This shot was actually taken in the middle of the afternoon.

Using steps for a backdrop and a long telephoto lens, Catrina created a simple composition for a beautiful shot of our couple.

A parting shot of our couple imaging their future.

Bollywood a Huge Success

2011-04-06T06:36:00.003-04:00

Catrina and I had a great time shooting the Bollywood event at the India Center in South Charleston, WV on March 26th. We learned a lot about Indian culture and diversity and were completely wowed by the dancing we saw. I've posted some pictures from the event below for you to see. Most important, a significant amount of money was raised for the YWCA of Charleston.

Several of the dancers wanted formal portraits, so we set up a make-shift studio in the basement. We chose a white background because of its timeless look. If you observe a magazine rack, you'll notice that about 50% of the covers are shot against a white background, so it's a great skill to have. We have the ability to create this set-up just about anywhere.

I've also included two images from one of the dance performances. I think they capture the essence of the event: colorful, dynamic, and exciting. Enjoy!

Shooting Bollywood Tonight at the India Center

2011-03-26T12:49:00.000-04:00

Catrina and I are privileged to be shooting the Bollywood fund-raiser event for the Charleston YWCA at the India Center in South Charleston tonight. If you saw the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire a few years ago, you'll probably recall the dance scene at the end which is a great example of Bollywood: elaborate clothing and beautiful dancing. We'll be posting pictures from the event over the next few weeks.

Creative Catrina (as I call her), the master of creative details, decided she had to have some henna work done for tonight's event and, of course, did it herself. When it comes to artistry, Catrina is a natural. Flower arrangements, make-up, table arrangements, and even henna tattoos. She can do it all. That's why she focuses on the detail shots at wedding events. It's not uncommon for her to help brides get ready, and I've seen her come to the rescue of many brides with last minute emergencies. For example, one bride didn't want to use her actual bouquet for the bouquet toss, so Catrina whipped up a second bouquet for that using table flowers. The bride thought it looked as good as her original bouquet. Catrina brings her creative expertise to every wedding we do, and it shows in the quality of her images. It might even show up in a few other places where you least expect it.

New Listing at The Wedding Chicks!

2011-02-24T14:21:00.001-05:00

If you're a bride preparing for your wedding day, chances are you've run across a site called The Wedding Chicks. It's chock-full of information to help brides plan for their wedding and find vendors, like wedding photographers. We were selected at last years' Wedding and Portrait Professionals International conference in Las Vegas to have a one-year listing on their website. You can learn about us and other preferred vendors in West Virginia at The Wedding Chicks site. You can click the following link to see our banner under WV wedding photographers. You may need to scroll down to see it.

Our banner at The Wedding Chicks

We're excited to be a preferred photographer at The Wedding Chicks!

Announcing Will and Catrina Photography!

2011-02-18T17:42:00.003-05:00

Catrina and I want to officially announce that our business has officially changed from Royal Aperture Photography to Will and Catrina Photography. If you are looking for a wedding photographer click the link to see our new website. I just noticed that my last post was to announce the upgraded website for Royal Aperture...what a coincidence!

We thought long and hard about changing our name after attending the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) convention in Las Vegas last year and have slowly but surely put things in place over the last 10 months to make that happen. New cards, new website, new branding...it's not as easy as it first sounds, but we did it.

Our choice of colors, darker earthy tones, may seem a little strange at first for wedding photographers, but they actually reflect our "organic" approach to photography. Catrina would say it's also a reflection of her love for gardening, but for me, it's a nice change from the usual white and pastels other photographers seem to use.

Yes, it's been almost one full year since my last blog post, but don't expect that to last in 2011. Things are starting to pick up, and we are planning to blog at least once per month now that the website and re-branding is complete. (I built our website from the ground up, and I prioritized that over blogging.) Our plan for the blog this year is to help brides prepare for their wedding day by posting tips and ideas we've discovered while photographing weddings over the last five years.

More to come soon!

www.royalaperture.com Version 2.0

2010-03-21T18:33:00.005-04:00

Our new website is up and running today! Click here to see it. It is a great improvement over our old site and does a much better job of showing our work and communicating what we do. I designed and built the new site from scratch, and in order to do that, had to learn many new things. It would have been easier to pay someone else to design this site, but I'm somewhat of a control freak and wanted to maintain the ability to update the site at any time. In the end, I believe we are better prepared to serve our clients because of the time spent learning about web design.

Building our new website took almost 15 months from start to finish. Most of that time was spent studying and learning how to do it, but once our concept was compete, things moved along rather quickly. In the future, we will be adding slide shows and sample albums from individual weddings in order to provide prospective clients with more images to see and help their decision-making process for choosing us as their wedding photographers.

We stood on the concept that less is more when it came to the website's design and incorporated a simple layout to make navigation easy. We hope you like it as much as we do.

Our New Wedding Album Partner

2010-03-19T23:24:00.003-04:00

One of the best things about the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention we attended last week in Las Vegas was the trade show where all of the companies having products for photographers displayed their latest stuff. This included companies like Nikon and Canon, but the ones we were most excited about were the wedding album manufacturers. Catrina and I had decided that we needed to find another wedding album company to partner with in addition to our current album partner, Graphi Studio in Italy. Graphi's albums are amazing, but we wanted our brides to have more styles to choose from. You can learn more about Graphi Studio by clicking here. I encourage you to watch the video called "Why Choose Us." (You may need to click on the Open tab to see the video link.)

We didn't have many requirements, but they were very stringent. They included:

Their albums had to be the highest quality. No exceptions. This includes cover materials, paper quality, print quality, packaging, and overall presentation.
The support staff had to be friendly and customer service oriented. This is really important when you make edits to an album after the first draft or need to place a rush order.
The design choices had to be timeless. If you order a wedding album, you want it to look great 20 years in the future. You would be surprised at the albums we saw that would be in vogue today but not two years from now.
We were not looking for the low-cost manufacturer because wedding albums are family heirlooms, but prices had to be reasonable.

With these things in mind, we went booth to booth, reviewing the products of over 25 different companies, looking for the perfect album. After three days and several hours of research, we found who we were looking for in a company called Queensbury. Queensbury is located in Auckland, New Zealand and has been creating exquisite, hand-made albums since 1969. Their reputation among wedding photographers is at the highest level, and you can learn more about Queensbury by clicking here.

We are very excited to offer this new line of albums to our clients. Our sample albums should be delivered any day now, and we can't wait to get them so we can share them with you. We'll be shooting a wedding in Lexington, KY next weekend, and the bride's album will be made by Queensbury. I can't wait to see the final result! I'm planning on posting the album design layout once it's complete for you to see. Come back and check it out!

We Loved WPPI in Las Vegas!

2010-03-12T09:10:00.000-05:00

Catrina and I attended the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) conference in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand this week and had an absolute blast! We met and learned from many of the greatest wedding and portrait photographers in the world. On top of that, we left the conference re-energized and refreshed for the 2010 wedding season. I'll be blogging over the next few weeks about some changes you'll see from us this year that will improve our products and customer service. Our brides already say their experience with us is fantastic, and we look forward to raising the bar even higher!

Here are some pics I took of Catrina in Vegas during the convention. Enjoy!

Here's Catrina texting and looking out our hotel window.

Catrina posing outside the Wedding Chapel at the MGM Grand.

Pictures Before or After the Ceremony? Which is Best?

2010-02-12T17:04:00.001-05:00

We often ask our brides whether they are open to taking pictures with the groom before the ceremony because it offers us more time to take pictures of them as a couple. Responses vary. Some brides say "Absolutely, yes!" while others are reluctant because they value the tradition of not seeing the groom until going down the aisle. We gladly honor your wishes no matter what you decide, but I can't help but try to influence you to consider taking pictures before the ceremony if you are currently on the traditional side. Let's review some of the pros and cons.

Pros
1) You will likely receive 40-60 more pictures as a couple because we have more time to take them.
2) More backgrounds and locations can be used for pictures. For an evening wedding, darkness often diminishes the number of locations we can use after ceremony, especially outside locations.
3) You won't feel as rushed. Many brides think they won't feel rushed after the ceremony when everyone is waiting for them at the reception, but our experience proves differently. We are AGAINST any bride feeling rushed on her wedding day!
4) More alone time with your groom on your wedding day! This benefit is often overlooked. Pictures before the ceremony offer the chance to relax and spend quality time with each other.
5) We have never had a bride say, "I wish I hadn't decided to take pictures before the ceremony." In fact, all brides who have agreed to take pictures before the ceremony have thanked us for the idea.
6) More time enjoying that beautiful dress!
7) More time to have fun with the rest of the wedding party.

Cons
1) You may be breaking tradition, and tradition may be very important to you. Parents sometimes disagree with picture taking before the ceremony, and that may be your motivation. Just remember, it is your wedding!
2) You must get ready earlier.

Maybe you can tell we are biased. :) Regardless of your decision, we will make the most of the opportunity and provide you with beautiful pictures.

In the above photo, you can see me taking a picture of a bride and groom before their ceremony at their favorite tree. The rest of the wedding party was also there (some were even taking their own pictures), allowing us more time to take group pictures as well. What you don't see is all of the jokes, laughs, and fun they are having while enjoying each other's company. They would not have had this opportunity had pictures been taken after the ceremony. Two results are shown below.

Shooting NYC with My New 12-24mm Wide-Angle Lens

2009-10-07T12:32:00.000-04:00

I added a new lens to my camera bag last week, the Tokina 12-24mm f/4, and it more or less completes the spectrum of lenses we can use at weddings. It's not easy to find a lens wider than 17mm, and while an extra 5mm doesn't sound like much, it makes a huge difference in helping include the surroundings into a photograph. This new lens will allow us to create some amazing portraits. The lens arrived last Thursday, and as luck would have it, my brother and I traveled to New York City for a the weekend which was the perfect place to test it.

Here two examples showcasing what this lens can do. The first image is of my brother, Chuck, standing in front of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue. If you've ever been there and seen it for yourself, you know it's one tall building! Would it surprise you that I took this image standing only 6 feet from Chuck (who was about 8 feet from the front of the building), kneeling on the sidewalk, and was able to fit the entire building in the frame?! Imagine the possibility of fitting an entire church or unique location into the frame while photographing a beautiful bride. If you are having difficulty imagining the significance of this, try standing 15 feet in front of a two-story house and fitting it in the frame with your point and shoot or at 18mm with your DSLR zoom lens. It ain't gonna happen.

This second image was taken on the walking path down the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. Some super-wide angle lenses have significant distortion in a situation like this, but the Tokina struts its stuff here. I'm a Nikon shooter and first considered purchasing the Nikon 12-24mm, but tests show the Tokina is just as good if not better. As you can tell, I'm very please with this new addition.

Continuing Education Makes Us Better

2009-09-25T12:36:00.000-04:00

In order to stay current on the latest and greatest technologies and techniques, wedding photographers must engage in continuing education. In addition to reading dozens of books each year and regularly visiting the blogs of 6 of the most current photographers, Catrina and I attend seminars to get hands-on training from today's top-rated photographers. We were in Columbus, OH last night to see David Ziser who is an expert in using small flashes to light brides and weddings in unique and creative ways. In addition to learning some new techniques with flashes, we won a HUGE door prize to have our admission paid for at WPPI's annual meeting in Las Vegas! WPPI is the leading organization for wedding and portrait photographers, and we look forward to the upcoming meeting where we can learn even more.

Our key beliefs on continuing education:

Know matter how good our photography is, it can always get better.
By networking with other great photographers, we help raise the standard of excellence in our own photography as well as the photography of others.
We want to learn techniques from others while maintaining our uniqueness as photographic artists.
Our clients deserve the best, so we must be at our best.

We think it's important for our customers to know that their investment is well spent. To get great photographs, you need great photographers.

To contact us or see sample images, click here.

Example of an On-Site Photo Shoot

2009-08-25T11:50:00.005-04:00

Catrina and I were in Lexington, KY last weekend and made an impromptu video in downtown's Triangle Park next to Rupp Arena to show how we quickly and easily work with someone to create on-site portraits. This video had no planning and was done in a single take in less than 20 minutes but does a nice job of showing what we do. Had we planned on making the video beforehand, I'm sure Catrina wouldn't be wearing a T-shirt from the Poison concert we attended in July!

One question we frequently hear is, "How good are you at posing?" Posing someone properly depends on several things: angles that flatter the subject, the surroundings, the mood of the photograph, number of subjects, etc. We take a casual approach with lots of verbal prompts while trying a variety of poses. Posing is part experience, part trial and error. We like being creative and take lots of pictures using several poses. In the end, we always find images our clients love.

We'll be posting more videos in the near future so you can learn more about Royal Aperture Photography and our shooting style.

Making Prints from Your Digital Images

2009-04-20T19:31:00.004-04:00

Many wedding photographers are offering their clients reduced prices by giving them images on a CD or DVD and nothing else. Be wary if you hear a photographer say, "I have a great deal going right now where I take 40% of my usual retail price and give you all of your images on a disc." We saw this happening at the January wedding shows. Many times, these images are taken straight out of the camera and saved to a disc with no digital post-processing. As mentioned in the last post, it's important for ALL digital images to receive digital post-processing to look their best, even from the best professional digital cameras. At Royal Aperture Photography, we post-process every single image you receive.

What some people fail to realize is that photographs on a disc are just that, digital information that can't be enjoyed. However, hanging photographs on your walls, placing them in frames on a desk or bookcase, or giving them as gifts to relatives and friends make your images truly enjoyable. That's why we offer prints in each of our packages. We want you to enjoy your wedding pictures every day.

Our professional printing service is second to none in quality, and we guarantee every print you receive. Period. After experimenting with several labs across the U.S., we selected one that produces the highest quality images at affordable prices, and that means every image you order from us will last a lifetime and still be in your budget.

The Importance of Digital Post-Processing

2009-02-05T20:06:00.021-05:00

Today's professional digital cameras are capable of taking very good pictures. However, even the best professional cameras don't produce images ready for display or printing without some extra work. Images require something called digital post-processing to look their best. When you compare images straight out of the camera to those that have been through digital post-processing, the difference is clear.

Below you can see two versions of the same photograph. The top photo came straight out of a professional Nikon camera. The bottom photo is the same image after digitally post-processing to saturate color and improve contrast. See the difference?

Every single image we deliver to you undergoes digital post-processing because that's what it takes to create the highest quality products for our clients. Whoever you choose as your photographer, make sure this important step is included in the production of your photographs. It's one of the differences between good photography and great photography.

Straight from the camera

With digital post-processing